Today marks the start of Arizona Public Health Week and National Public Health Week, a recognition of the work public health does behind the scenes to improve the overall health of our communities. Aligned with National Public Health Week's 2019 focus on Creating the Healthiest Nation, the State Health Assessment (SHA) examines the health of [...]
We recently launched an interactive dashboard that is providing timely data about the opioid epidemic in Arizona. The dashboard is a tool that ADHS and our partners are using to develop interventions that will keep our communities safe. The data is a valuable resource to help identify trends. For example, the data from a new [...]
Late on Friday, working with Pima County Health Department, our Arizona State Public Health Laboratory confirmed Arizona’s first case of measles of 2019. A family and their young child traveled internationally to an area with active measles cases and the child became sick with measles. The child’s health is improving now, but the work of [...]
The Rio Rico Medical and Fire District recently became Arizona’s sixth emergency medical services (EMS) agency to be recognized as a Treat and Refer EMS agency by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS). The Treat and Refer Recognition Program increases patient access to primary and preventive care. The program recognizes EMS agencies that demonstrate [...]
While we’ve made significant strides in reducing cigarette smoking among youth in Arizona, the use of electronic nicotine products, also called e-cigarettes or vape, are on the rise. According to a recent Vital Signs published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in four high school students and one in 14 middle school [...]
Today we released a new report highlighting recent activities in the fight to reduce opioid overdoses and deaths in our state, and a look at opioid surveillance data in the past year. The report highlights some areas of great progress: ADHS established final rules for pain management clinics and began taking applications in January 2019 [...]
Physical activity is fun, can be done anywhere and anytime, and can have positive benefits to your health. From now until the end of July, the Arizona Department of Health Services’ AZ Health Zone is featuring a new public awareness campaign called “Every. Day. Active.” The campaign includes statewide digital ads and social media that shows [...]
February is an ideal time to encourage our families, friends, and communities to be involved in heart health. With every heartbeat, blood is pumped through 60,000 miles of blood vessels, delivering important nutrition and oxygen to organs and tissues. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, remains the leading global cause of death with more [...]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) performs studies each year to determine how well the influenza (flu) vaccine protects against flu. They recently released the 2018–2019 interim influenza vaccine effectiveness results that highlight how the vaccine helps to protect our communities from the disease. Overall, the vaccine was 47% effective in preventing individuals [...]
Every day, public health works to keep Arizonans healthy and well by promoting good choices like healthy eating, regular physical activity, smoking cessation, vaccinations, and injury prevention through seatbelt and helmet use. We know that these choices lead to good health, but we also know that it's not always easy—or even possible—to make these choices. Many factors, including something known as [...]
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